Asteroseismic Detection of a Massive Unseen Companion to the δ Scuti Star TIC 160582982
Abstract
We present TIC 160582982, an eccentric δ Scuti binary with a dynamically massive unseen companion. Six coherent high-frequency pressure modes used as pulsation clocks yield a phase-modulation orbit with Porb=89.29±0.19 d, e=0.539+0.040−0.037, and a1sin i/c=145.6+3.7−3.4 s, corresponding to K1=42.2+2.2−1.8 km s−1 and f(M)=0.416+0.032−0.028 M⊙. An independent frequency-modulation analysis of the two strongest modes gives a consistent orbital solution. Rotating MIST isochrones constrained by the atmospheric parameters and spectral energy distribution (SED) give M1=1.93±0.19 M⊙ and R1=2.65±0.23 R⊙. The mass function implies a formal edge-on minimum companion mass of approximately 1.80 M⊙. Assuming a luminous main-sequence companion and including the non-eclipsing geometry gives M2=2.19+1.24−0.34 M⊙ and i=61.5+16.6−19.6 deg. However, no clear evidence for the presence of a luminous counterpart is found, either photometrically or spectroscopically. This suggests the presence of a massive compact object, such as a neutron star or even a stellar-mass black hole, as the massive unseen binary companion. Future phase-resolved high-resolution spectroscopy will be crucial for obtaining an independent orbital constraint and clarifying the nature of the companion.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{lv2026asteroseismic,
title = {{Asteroseismic Detection of a Massive Unseen Companion to the $δ$ Scuti Star TIC 160582982}},
author = {Chenglong Lv and J. Pascual-Granado and Ali Esamdin and Angela Gardini and Haozhi Wang and Jianwei Yao and Shuguo Ma},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.00062},
eprint = {2610.00062},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.00062},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Asteroseismic Detection of a Massive Unseen Companion to the δ Scuti Star TIC 160582982
AU - Chenglong Lv
AU - J. Pascual-Granado
AU - Ali Esamdin
AU - Angela Gardini
AU - Haozhi Wang
AU - Jianwei Yao
AU - Shuguo Ma
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.00062
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.00062
AB - We present TIC 160582982, an eccentric δ Scuti binary with a dynamically massive unseen companion. Six coherent high-frequency pressure modes used as pulsation clocks yield a phase-modulation orbit with P_orb=89.29±0.19 d, e=0.539^+0.040_−0.037, and a_1sin i/c=145.6^+3.7_−3.4 s, corresponding to K_1=42.2^+2.2_−1.8 km s^−1 and f(M)=0.416^+0.032_−0.028 M_⊙. An independent frequency-modulation analysis of the two strongest modes gives a consistent orbital solution. Rotating MIST isochrones constrained by the atmospheric parameters and spectral energy distribution (SED) give M_1=1.93±0.19 M_⊙ and R_1=2.65±0.23 R_⊙. The mass function implies a formal edge-on minimum companion mass of approximately 1.80 M_⊙. Assuming a luminous main-sequence companion and including the non-eclipsing geometry gives M_2=2.19^+1.24_−0.34 M_⊙ and i=61.5^+16.6_−19.6 deg. However, no clear evidence for the presence of a luminous counterpart is found, either photometrically or spectroscopically. This suggests the presence of a massive compact object, such as a neutron star or even a stellar-mass black hole, as the massive unseen binary companion. Future phase-resolved high-resolution spectroscopy will be crucial for obtaining an independent orbital constraint and clarifying the nature of the companion.
ER -